The Secret of the Black Pyramid
by Engineer Jess
Summary: Scrooge finds an old stone tablet that reveals the location of the mysterious black pyramid... and that tomb hides a treasure... *Ch 3 up.*
1. The value of making auctions

**Author's notes: this story is based on the comics of EMZ and me that were done in the primary school. With her permission the story has been adapted and rewritten. This is crossovered with Carl Barks' and Don Rosa's comics, as well as Quack Pack (a little bit).The basic difference is that Donald Duck does not twang. But mostly this is DuckTales. Original Disney characters © Disney **

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**Secret of the Black Pyramid**

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1. THE VALUE OF MAKING AUCTIONS

 It was a quiet Sunday afternoon in Duckburg. The warm wind of late summer brushed by as Scrooge MacDuck wandered in the city park searching for dropped dimes. Today's balance hadn't been any remarkable, moreover it had cost too much for its value. Scrooge had found a coin, alright, but it was one of those tricky ones, glued purposefully on one of the park benches. With huge effort, he had been able to loose it from the wood surface.

 The old banker was a bit tired because of the warmth and quietness of the atmosphere. Taking steps there along the sand lane, he noticed a large tent on the nearby grass plain. There stood some sign beside it.

"What might be there?" he pondered and took a shortcut through the grass. The plate told him in red letters: 'Slick O'Soap's Auction: Only Today!  Come and make the best findings of the year! Our speciality: the estate of Professor Seth Dustscull!'

"Bursting bagpipes! Well… auctions are always interesting…" the duck thought and peeked into the tent. It was almost empty. At the back wall was a scaffold where a fat pig in a fast and enthusiastic accent presented all kinds of items. Behind him, there was a heap of that old junk. At the ground in front of O'Soap, the auctioneer, were several rows of chairs. All the visitors the tent had, seemed to be more or less asleep. A couple of beggars sprawled in the front row. A granny was knitting a sock in the last one. The only reason she was here was that she wanted to get into a cooler place from the sunshine out there.

MacDuck sat down to one of the benches to listen to the report about the auctioned items. There were Attila the Hun's watch, the dentures of Caesar, a button from Napoleon's coat… and such other as remarkable objects. Scrooge's somnolence gradually got the upper hand of him, because there seemed to be nothing interesting in sight. When O'Soap turned to present the estate of this one professor, MacDuck was in full sleep.

 The voice of the auctioneer was coming like from a hollow tube to Scrooge's ears. "… now a trunk filled with the most intriguing objects the world can carry on it's surface! An old umbrella! A pickaxe for digging! A…" The banker should not have awakened at this point. He stretched his arms and yawned long, then opened his eyes to hear the displeasing news.

"The trunk of professor Dustscull is sold to the old gentleman right there with 50 bucks!" O'Soap had got the impression of Scrooge's rather visual wake-up that he wanted to buy the item with any price.

Scrooge's eyes went wide. "Oh, no…"

---Later that day, the Money Bin---

Scrooge walked nervously and angrily a circle around the floor. His nephew, Donald Duck, cleaned some old cobwebs away from the ceiling, standing on a ladder that seemed to be too bad stuff even for a landfill. He worked now for his uncle, because of being penniless, again.

"You know, Uncle, you could have used those 50 bucks to buy me a new ladder!" Donald glared at his relative from the highnesses.

"50 bucks for ladders? Are you insane? When I was in the Klondike as a young man, I…"

"Yes, yes, I know that mantra", Donald sighed.

"Don't talk about money loss to me, any more, today. This rubbish I got from that con artist, is already making enough rain clouds upon my head!" the elder duck spat and kicked the trunk. It keeled over and let some items roll on the floor. Scrooge therefore hurt his web and danced with one leg for a while. "That dratted box! Wonder how it can be so heavy when it only consists of such trash!" he moaned.

Donald came down from his place to see what was wrong. Pouting to all those useless goods, he emptied the trunk to see what kind of material it was. "Plain wood. But it is really heavy."

Suddenly a gleam ignited in Scrooge's eyes. "Wait… there's something peculiar in that thing. Why is the bottom so thick…? Hmm…" Soon he was squatting on the floor beside his nephew, trying to see if the little theory he had in mind was true. The knocks he did with his knuckles to the wood, seemed to prove it.

"This thing has to have some kind of a double-basis. It sounds completely hollow."

"You're right…" Donald added. "Maybe there's a button that releases…" he let his fingers run along one side and unintentionally came to release a spring mechanism that opened the bottom in two halves. A black cloud of remains was blown straight against Scrooge's face. He hackled and cursed and was about to give a whack to Donald with his cane, when he noticed the results.

Under the midsole of the trunk lied a stone tablet and a heap of stale papers.

"Through the tartan, what is this?" Scrooge picked up the stone, repairing the position of his glasses. "Hieroglyphs. Egyptian hieroglyphs."

"But didn't the Egyptians use papyrus, not stone, to write down?" Donald astonished.

"This seems to be a piece of some decoration, this is not a plain stone tablet. Someone has chopped this off some wall." Scrooge turned the item over and checked out the ragged backside.

In the meantime Donald had studied some of the papers that he had dug out of the trunk. He read aloud the first lines of the yellowed ink text: "_20. Mars, 1938… what I have come now to conclusion, the tablet tells the location of one of the lost mysteries of the ancient world, the black pyramid, that was taken by the sands right after it was sealed and the Pharaoh Khufu had been taken to the eternal rest. It is a historical fact that this place exists, although it has been considered mainly as a joke in the archaeological domains. What is the most intriguing, it might be that the property left from this mighty Pharaoh, might still be untouched by the grave-robbers… "_

Donald raised his regard to meet Scrooge's eyes. It was sure, that the old treasure-hunter had now sniffed an opportunity for a great adventure. True that was, as he now nearly collared his nephew, while declaring out loud: "Khufu? Come on, we are going to need the help of your nephews with this: the Junior Woodhuck Manual never has failed to explain the riddles of the lost times!"

Soon the front door of the Money Bin banged after two rushing ducks that headed straight to Donald's home.

…more to come…


	2. The riddle of Kheops

2. THE RIDDLE OF KHEOPS

 What else was there to be faced but a terrible, chaotic squeal and quack when Scrooge and Donald opened the front door of the younger duck's single-family house.

"Look out! He's gonna catch you!"

"No way! Go, set, fire!"

"Missed it!"

A blurry choir of pre-teen voices filled the air.

Donald shook his head and walked into the living-room. "What kind of monkey flock is keeping noise here?" he shouted over the riot.

Huey, Dewey and Louie sat on the floor, all joysticks in their hands. The television screen showed the current situation of the video game.

"Oh, we're just probing the advantages of the XX-Boxx!" Dewey clarified.

"We kinda bought this one new game today and…" Huey added with enthusiasm.

"Another game? You have them enough, already. Now you quit it, your Great-Uncle is here. It's your turn to make some snack." Donald scolded and gesticulated towards the kitchen.

"Aw, Unca Don, you can't be so heartless! We just got to the level nine!" Louie stretched his face extremely sad-looking.

"Yea, Unca, don't you see that Evil Emperor Zurg has just conquered the galaxy and the space rangers have to…"

"Curse me bagpipes, in my childhood we had no such unavailing things as video games", Scrooge put his words in the middle, "We did either hard work or played with fir-tree cones. Besides, I need your help, boys. Would be great use for your Junior Woodhuck Manual. We have a mystery to solve."

"Bah. Adults are killjoys." Louie snorted to his brothers, so that Scrooge did not hear.

 At the kitchen table, Scrooge explained all to the boys. The stone tablet was put in the middle of the table and the yellowed papers dug out of MacDuck's pockets.

"If this, what we have in our hands, is reliable, we have a sensation!" he declared, signs of dollars shining in his eyes. "The secret tomb of Pharaoh Khufu…"

Dewey leafed through the Scout Manual he had grapped from the boys' room. "Khufu… I've heard that name before… maybe on a history lesson."

"Me too! Wasn't our teacher just telling that…" Huey noted.

"Here! Khufu… no wonder why he was that familiar! He is commonly known as _Kheops!" the little duck raised his regard from the book._

"Exactly. The mighty Pharaoh of the Old Kingdom who built _the pyramid of Gizeh!" Scrooge continued. "Now what we have here, is that these old papers claim that someone has located the possible last rest place of this lord of the elder times. This professor Dustscull, to whom the notes belonged, must have been dead for a long time, already. They are dated before World War II. I guess his property has been gathering particles in someone's attic for a while."_

"According to our manual, Kheops was the son of Snefru, the Pharaoh that built the first real pyramids. He had his reign in the 4th dynasty of ancient Egypt, so on 24 years. He was always described as a cruel despot in the early contexts, such as Herodotus' ones. His tomb is said to be the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, but when the completely sealed king's burial chamber was finally entered, no mummy was found there", Dewey read from the book.

Huey, who had reminisced what he had heard about Kheops lately at the school, opened his beak. "Wasn't our teach telling us about the peculiar shaft that leaves the one chamber in that Great Pyramid? Then we did see the television document about it."

"Yeah. An electronic little widget with a camera had been sent to one of those small shafts. And it ended up to a hatch where was a lock-mechanism-looking copper piece. And the tunnel did not exit the pyramid."

"Now, boys, we're getting sidetracked. Would you, Donald, read, what Professor Dustscull says more in his papers." Scrooge commented the enthusiasm of the little ducks.

Donald picked up the papers and raised his tone. "…Hmm… side notes… here's nothing interesting… aha, here! Ahem… _I loosened this stone piece from the wall of the Great Pyramid, so that no one else could have got his hands into it. It took for a while to decode the hieroglyphs, namely these ones seemed to be some kind of symbols that were extremely rarely used in the scripts and wall decorations of the Old Kingdom Egyptians… hmm… __the full name of Khnum-Khufu can be read in the hieroglyph markings, in the middle of the engravings…" Donald and the others bowed to see what it was, "…__beside it, can be found marks about burials and a note about a temple that was dedicated to the god of chaos, serpent of the underworld, Apep. Then there comes the most important detail, in the left, lower corner. I would…" Donald stopped for a while and turned the greasy paper over, "Quack, this thing is completely sticky! Okay… our Sculldust continues: …__would translate it freely somewhat like this. 'I, Great Pharaoh Khnum-Khufu, shall give my command for to accompany me in front of the god of underworld where my heart will be put in scales. My house shall not be the one that I built with great majesty, but the black alabaster temple, the house of Apep. It shall be buried to the sands so that I can continue to live with my treasures and my god with no distraction in the divine paradises.' And lastly, we are given a clue of where it is. It should be situated to the east of Gizeh, in the desert, after two oases. The strict site of it will be told in a wall map that is behind the shaft that leaves from the Queen's Chamber of the Great Pyramid…"_

"What?" was Scrooge's surprised yell. "What were you boys talking about the shafts?" 

Donald stopped also his reading and looked amazed.

Dewey quickly napped the Junior Woodhuck Manual to see if there was better information about the topic. "Hmm… this says that it was a couple of years ago they did this experiment. There is actually two shafts in the Queen's chamber, both ones are too narrow for a human to enter. They were supposed to be tunnels with a ceremonial or religious meaning, like the two tunnels that leave the King's Chamber upon the Queen's one. But according to the new knowledge, its true meaning is unknown. The south shaft from the Queens chamber has been explored by a special mechanical robot with lights and a camera and about 213' up the shaft, a limestone fitted plug, much like a door, was found with two copper pins imbedded in the plug sealing off the shaft. What is on the other side, no-one knows, the Egyptian government hasn't allowed further investigation. "

"But if there's something behind it, and it's too narrow to be entered, how can one get there?" Louie uttered.

"Donald, read forward. Is there told more about this?" Scrooge raised his voice.

The nephew picked the papers again and read, "_The southern tunnel holds the strict map. The marks on the right side of the stone tablet can be translated to mean that there is a moving stone at the beginning of the other fake tunnel of the same chamber. By pushing it, a lock mechanism should be opened and therefore possibly the second tunnel turns wider or that what is my conclusion this far."_

"Squealing krakens…" Scrooge gasped. "We need to get to Egypt. Now. This opportunity won't be missed."

"Not so fast, Unca Scrooge." Dewey blurted, "Don't you remember what our Manual just said? 'The Egyptian government hasn't allowed further investigations.' You need to have a lot of permissions and an archaeologist to lead the expedition group, if that is possible to arrange."

"Aye…" the old duck sighed. "A wee lad knows better what to do."

"And you know, Uncle, it's not gonna be a _free thing to travel to the other side of the world and get US with you…" Donald commented, taking a sly expression._

"Money! Why is it always that you have to talk about money?" Scrooge sighed long and frustrated, "Look, we have already problems, here. It is not completely reliable to trust to something that you find in the bottom of some old trunk. It raises questions, why didn't this professor go to find the pyramid himself. Or, has somebody found it already? And what comes to finding a way to transport us to Egypt…"

"Isn't Launchpad on the job?" Dewey asked.

"No, lad. He's sick. He ate some oolated squiggs from Brutopia and got a bad stomach complaint. We need to find another way to fly to the destination. Some means that is cheap."

 Unexpectedly the doorbell rang while Scrooge was debating about the travel expenses. Donald of course wanted a good salary, not the usual 30 cents for an hour.

"I'll go to open up." Donald snorted and left the bothered Scrooge at his calculator.

The visitor was Donald's girlfriend Daisy Duck. She had been working for a TV studio for a while. Donald had been her cameraman for a while ago, but his former boss, Kent Powers, had given him a payoff for constantly sleeping at work. Daisy's appearance had changed in the recent months still somewhat from that drastic difference that she had done some time ago. No more bow ties or buff sleeves. She had let her hair grow long and kept it now in a high ponytail. The old-fashioned shirts had turned to coquette suit costumes from Cashian Dior.

"Aw, hi, tootsie!" Donald took a sugary smile.

"Phew, you gotta help me, Don, I've got this new project going on. I should get something really sensational into the news, something that would break all the TV viewer records…" she extended her arms in the air and shook her head.

"You came to the right place, Aunt Daisy, we have a living mystery right over here!" Dewey burst into laughter. He had just come from the kitchen.

"Oo! A mystery?" she giggled.

"Well, sorta. Unca Scrooge found an old document that got us to the trails of the black pyramid."

Daisy's eyes started to shine. Well there was a possibility to get a show spectator overflow if anything!

"Wherewherewherewhere? Tell me all! Nownownownow!" she expressed hyperactively.

Scrooge MacDuck frowned her from the kitchen threshold. "Did that brat need to tell her that? This was supposed to be a secret", he pondered bothered but then an idea lamp ignited in his mind. "What if there would be a chance to spare my dear shiny coins? Hmm…" He let his regard wander in the ceiling for a while, then took a vulpine grin and tapped to Daisy.

"Good day, Miss Duck! What if we would help you to do an interesting documentary… let's say, about the lost tomb of Pharaoh Khufu… and your employer would pay the expenses…?"

Donald beside Scrooge gave him an angry side-glance. So, this way he would avoid paying wages to his dear nephew?

Daisy did not notice the pettifogging plot. She whisked her long hair and blurted as if it had been a matter of course: "Why, sure, Mr. MacDuck. I have already a suitable budget for making this program, but we can always negotiate with my boss about extra costs. It only means that wherever you decide to go to make your archaeological studies, I'll be coming along."

Scrooge exhaled a bit in a huff. He had not wanted this, only a free travel to Egypt. However, those were the clear terms, he could not avoid them.

"Aye. We do then that. Put your luggage ready, we'll take a flight to Cairo, tomorrow morning", the old duck made a fast decision. After his words, he whizzed back to the kitchen, grapped the stone tablet and the papers and came back to the front door. "I'll be making now some calls, including your boss, Miss Duck, and then contacting some archaeological institutes of Cairo and Alexandria." With this conclusion, he walked out of the door and left the surprised ducks behind him.

 Donald and Daisy stared after the banker for a moment.

"Well that was quick work, I might say", she commented eyes wide open.

But Donald was more used to this and changed the topic. "You still need a camera man, tootsie?" he took back his bland smile and cuddled her under her beak.

"Why sure, Don. You can handle that part of the trip. I'll go now back home to put my things ready."

…more to come…


	3. Gizeh's mysteries

3. GIZEH'S MYSTERIES

-----Cairo, the National Archaeological Institution------

"Unbelievable!"

"Say what!"

A group of ducks had leaned themselves upon a large desk. There were spread the manuscripts of Scrooge, a couple of maps, and the illustrious stone tablet. A black-haired male duck, dressed in a uniform, lectured and kept the most noise. He was Professor Mordecai Jones, specialized in Egyptian archaeology and linguistics. A man in his thirties was he, obviously a native Egyptian. That could be assumed from his outer appearance.

"Do you know, Mister MacDuck, what this can mean?" he asked grave.

"Why, sure. That's why we're here!" the eldest duck answered and spruced himself up.

Earlier the whole story of the lost tomb of Khufu was explained in detail to the mentioned professor, so the things were clear to him.

"Very, very intriguing. If this is all facts and not fairy tales, this could solve one of the biggest archaeological mysteries of all times." Mordecai fingered his beak, and took a sharp glance at his guests. "This seems quite reliable added to the new evidence we found last week."

"What evidence?"

"How come you didn't hear about it, Mister MacDuck? It has been in newspapers all over the world!" the professor astonished.

"I never buy newspapers! Curse me kilts, they cost! I rather spare a dime for future! One dime is the beginning of a million dollars! And a million is the beginning of a billion! And so on", the old duck snorted.

"Oh, I see…" Jones nodded confused. "But, let me explain. Last week, a remarkable step was done in trying to solve what's behind the limestone in this mysterious shaft of Khufu's Great Pyramid. Another little crawler was sent now in narrow tunnel, and it drilled a small hole in the sealed door. A camera with lights could peek in, and see what's behind that odd stone. But… as for the scientist's disappointment, there was another sealed stone door, although it looked quite fragile. But so far this new finding is blocking our way and hindering us to study what possibly could be behind it. However… the theorems of Professor Dustscull and this very, very intriguing stone tablet do not anyhow annul the discoveries done by today."

"But… we just heard that the Egyptian government did _not allow further studies because…" Daisy took her speech. At the present, she knew by rote even the places of the quotation marks in the legend of the secret chambers. _

"…because of money, and the fear of ruining valuable archeological artifacts. But sometimes the winds of luck blow. Last week's breaking-through project was done with foreign technology and assistance. Otherwise it would not have been possible", the professor smiled.

The word 'money' had gotten the cash register to tinkle in Scrooge's brains. With dollar-bill sings in his eyes, he snatched the sleeve of Mordecai. "Aye, and what will _I get when we find the treasure?"_

This kind of blabber annoyed the skilled archeologist. For him, history was an esteemed and respectable abstraction, full of adventures and deeps swims into the origins of mankind. Thus, he hated to hear someone baaing about bucks at this kind of moment.

"Look, Mister MacDuck. I'm not doing my work because of immense profits, but because of the sheer enthusiasm towards the unknown secrets of past. Whatever is found, it will be the assets of the Egyptian Republic. The relics and…"

Jones had to cut short his sentence. The old tycoon was lying on his back on the floor, his webs pointing towards the ceiling. He had seemingly passed out.

"W-what happened, do we need to call an ambulance?"

"No, this is just a normal reaction for our Unca when he hears that he has to suffer from money loss", Donald coolly answered, and picked up some fresh green notes from Scrooge's pocket. By fanning them above the skinflint's beak, replacing the smelling salts, there was soon life seen in this disappointed nabob. A moment passed, and MacDuck had his spats again in the right direction.

"WHAT? Blow me bagpipes, the lion's share of the findings belong to me, that's a cosmic truth!" he barked and shook his cane in front of Mordecai's beak. "Keep in mind, lad, that the notes of Professor Cobwebscull… eh, Fungusscull… well whatever that was, but in any case, those notes and that hieroglyph stone that came with them, belong to _me. Without them not a duck or mouse will get on the trails of the Black Pyramid, not in the known universe. So, I'm entitled to a share. By dancing tartan!"_

Rolling his eyes the annoyed professor sighed, "This is a hoot for the historical study! Where have vanished all those brave, honored men who made immense sacrifices just to find the mummified laurel crown of Caesar? Or those, who years searched and explored ancient manuscripts to reveal the location of the Inca-emperor Kuzco's lost swimming pool? Where have those heroes disappeared? Only I hear the same song from year to year, _money money money, must be funny, in the rich man's world…"_

"Better get used to Unca Scrooge's tantrums and mentality", Donald yawned like nothing new was announced on the plains of Tellus. "He gets those every other second… back home I remember when my cousin Gladstone happened to find a dollar on the street, just at the same time when Unca Scrooge had spotted it… this time Gladstone's invincible luck possibly failed, because it was healthier for him to give the dollar to Scrooge, than begin to argue who had spotted it first… OUCH!"

"You don't have to quack everything about my important financial businesses to every by-passer, nephew", the old dabbler snarled. The sailor's pain yelp was explained with the fact that a certain cane had hit him painfully on his tail.

So Mordecai Jones had to give up. In any case, he would be waddling beside this greedy Croesus quite much the next weeks. While Donald was still grimacing with pain in the background, the professor explained that MacDuck would get a certain kind of compensation in money if the possible bonanza was encountered. But, every Scarabee, pharaoh's toothpick, and medallion would go in the museum rooms. An expedition group would be arranged, and this particular professor would lead it. Although the magnate kept furthermore on his garrulity, he was still fairly content with the 'negotiation' results.  

But… behind the nearest bookshelf, a shadow lurked towards the debating group. The figure of a man peeked from the gap of two books, screwing up his ears in sheer excitement.

"Hmm… _most interesting…" he grinned nastily to himself. "So that nauseous Jones is after a treasure? Well, if it's up to me, he'll never get it. Neither does the museum…"_

_"…and we are leaving Cairo to the main venue the day after tomorrow… you have enough time to equip yourself and recover from the timing difference of USA and our country…" the spy heard Mordecai explaining._

"Well, that's a welcome idea… so I can put up my gear, too, and ask for a nice little holiday from here, without that the outsiders start to wonder, where I am…" the prowler sniggered silently.

---Two days later---

The descending night cast eerie shadows among the massive results of centuries of human toiling. Gizeh was as majestic as ever, the sharp tops of the stone colossi stretching towards the skies. The sand fields amongst the architectural giants were still blazingly hot from the day's burning heat grades. The night, however, was lucid. The Milky Way nearer the equator was different from that in Calisota, showing all its bright beauty above the pyramids. The noseless face of the Sphinx greeted the arrivers, hailing mutely together with the temples, pillars, and antiquity. 

"Wow", was Daisy's first comment, after which he put Donald to roll the tape. "It's like we would have stepped thousands of years back in time!"

"Big step! I bet our legs would not be enough long for that!" Dewey gave a comment, as the duck group walked forwards. This was now Gizeh at night, free from tourist tumults and over-enthusiastic photographers. Leaded by Professor Jones, the explorers had a few minutes ago tapped off from a jeep. What else place would be more reasonable to start the adventure than The Great Pyramid? That mausoleum held the first secrets, the first steps towards the further riddles. And for 'informal studies' the nighttime was ideal. During these two lapsed days, it had become clear for Scrooge and his companion that this professor Jones was actually not the most honest person in the world after all, although he had so much praised the concept of a 'virtuous researcher'. He had a little side reputation about the methods of finding historical artefacts for the museums. Someone might have called it grave robbery, but that was just this _someone's opinion. However, now the quacking flock was on their way inside Khufu's headquarters. Donald let his video camera wander across the ruins, while Daisy had started to yak the commentary of her forthcoming documentary._

"And here we are, on the threshold of arcanums…" Suddenly Miss Duck's voice turned nervous, "Now, watch the threshold, Donal…" Some clatter was heard and the video camera showed sideways-turned stonewall for a while. The explorers had stepped in Kheops' calvary through the doorway. Of course, for clumsy Donald, always there were stumbling blocks en route to everything.

"Now, don't goof up there, lads. We got a treasure to hunt!" Scrooge yelled over his shoulder. He was with a good speed already heading to the corridor leading to the Queen's Chamber, a lantern in his hand. The first ascending passage needed to be climbed before that, though.

The boys, as usually, had watched too much horror movies. Their half-scared unison speech handled living mummies, poisonous Egyptian beetles and all kinds of double Dutch and abracadabra. The bleak and rough walls, in the pale illumination of the floodlight, gave a lifeless and gloomy appearance to the cold dead palace. No engravings were decorating the dark aisles. This detail brought some wonder to Daisy, who rattled with her audio commentary.

"Professor Jones, can you explain where Professor Dustscull could have taken the stone tablet that was found from his estate? There seems to be no such places where it could have been loosened from."

"Well, there's actually a million possibilities for that. The walls are occasionally so rough, that no one would even notice that something has been hammered out of them."

"Aye, and lads, you could stop your mummy-mumbling. You read from your Junior Woodchuck manual already that no mummies were found from here", MacDuck waved his hand and asked the rest to hurry up.

The last aisle to the destination was an even channel. An enthusiastic gleam had ignited in Scrooge's eyes, and thus he resembled a pedestrian with seven league boots on. In a nanosecond he was on the other end of the passage, standing now at the entrance of the Queen's Chamber. Somewhat dissatisfiedly he then peered through his goggles, as he had approached the rough-looking rock hall. This room was one of the most dismal parts of the pyramid inners. All was conquered by the grey limestone, the walls looking rather unfinished.

"And here we are supposed to find a clue? Curse me haggis, this looks like a bunker! Would be livelier even with some graffities!"

And so Jones was steaming again with anger. He snatched the stone tablet from the old duck, yet not saying aloud his opinion about the tycoon's last words. Graffities. So much did MacDuck give value to Khufu's majestic building work?

"Alright. The surveillance cameras are disabled in this room now, so we can…" the black-haired male smacked, trailing his finger along the hieroglyphs.

Scrooge narrowed somewhat his eyes. Disabled surveillance cameras? "Lad, weren't we supposed to have the permission of the government for this…?"

"Sure, sure", the archaeologist threw en passant. "Now let's see… so there is supposed to be a moving stone in the northern air shaft… right here! This is what Dustscull means with the _fake tunnel." He pointed with his finger towards the northern wall of the room. There was this little square hole jutting there._

"It's assumingly inside there", one of the boys pointed out.

"Right. Take the lantern and I'll try to feel about it." Mordecai offered the lamp to the others, slipping then his whole arm into the gap. "This shaft has been studied before, but there's always something that can be left unnotic…" The last syllable was left unsaid on his tongue. Surprisingly fast his hand had spotted something unstable further there. Not on the shaft wall, but in its 'ceiling'. A loud click was heard, as his hand had happened to push this particular object. It had caved in, and in a way snapped into another position, like a big lego block.

"Ahem… I think I noticed the unnoticed."

And instantly, as the final sentence had been left to float along the stream of history, a low rumble began to shake the floor. Dust and little particles of stucco fell off from the ceiling, making the ducks cough.

"Ohmyohmyohmy… i-is the room going to collapse?" Daisy got a nervous-attack. "Great, what if you just activated an ancient booby trap?"

The vibrations went on, but seemingly the tomb still kept its structures intact… or at least some of them. Namely, the gazes were now attached at the southern wall, which was going through some kind of metamorphosis.

"It… It's opening u-up…!" someone gave an interjection.

And… behind the seven confused ducks, in the hiding shades of the entrance passage, was an uninvited guest following the events an evil grin on his face.

…to be continued…


End file.
